Obituaries : * Philip J. Rasch, Ph.D; Physiologist

Philip John Rasch, Ph.D, a longtime Ojai resident, physiologist and amateur archeologist, died at an Ojai nursing home after a long illness. He was 85.

Rasch, who was born Dec. 3, 1909, in Grand Rapids, Mich., served in the U. S. Navy on a submarine chaser in the Pacific during World War II.

After the war, he helped train Marines in Virginia and North Carolina. One of the projects he worked on was helping service members acclimate themselves to the heat and humidity of Vietnam.

Rasch retired from the Navy in 1969 as a lieutenant commander. He was always active and involved in sports even after he retired, said his wife, Mary, of Ojai.

“He was mostly muscle,” she said. “He was small himself and couldn’t get into team sports when he was young, so he just threw himself into weight-lifting, wrestling and fencing.”

Rasch sailed up until a few years ago and then took up horseback riding.

“He was just so active and he loved the outdoors,” his wife said.

He was a local horse club member and the author of books on sports medicine kinesiology, weight training and wrestling. He also published many articles as an historian of early Southwest lawmen and outlaws.

At the age of 65, he went back to college to study archeology and participated in amateur archeological digs in England, his wife said.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his son, Philip E. Rasch of Orange; daughter, Virginia M. Rasch of Ojai, sister Elizabeth Marsh of Orange and four grandchildren.

Cremation will be under the direction of Clausen Funeral Home, Ojai.